Philadelphia Gun Range Owner And Activist Say ‘Black Guns Matter’

There was one shoot­ing every six hours on aver­age last year in Philadel­phia. In the past 10 years, more than 14,500 shoot­ings occurred, with at least 2,600 killed by guns — many of whom were black res­i­dents.

While some see the num­bers as a rea­son to increase gun con­trol, oth­ers see things dif­fer­ent­ly.

Yuri Zalz­man of North Philadelphia’s The Gun Range and Maj Toure of the activist group Black Guns Mat­ter have come togeth­er to try to find solu­tions.

Both teach inner-city res­i­dents how to prop­er­ly han­dle firearms and believe the effort to reduce the num­ber of guns in the city would mean res­i­dents would be less safe.

Here & Now’s Robin Young vis­it­ed The Gun Range and spoke with Zalz­man and Toure about their efforts.